Doing windows

So we finally bit the bullet and had new windows put in the house. After a few years of looking and window shopping (pun intended) we finally settled on Unique Windows. Kinda of funny really, I was blind to their commercials then one day I was like, “why don’t we check theses guys out?” Didn’t help that they were having their own cash for clunkers deal. Something like $150 on each window. Jen called them and they came buy two days later. I’m not going to get into the whole sale approach of this company but if you decide to use them be warned: it takes like three hours to get through. Anyways our minds were pretty much made up at this point and we signed on the dotted line. The price was about what we expected to pay on the high end. The windows were ready in about a week. And we had them here like three business days after they told us that.

Things didn’t start out so good. Two of the windows were cut too large., which turns out were the two that needed replacement the most, our single hung pieces of shit that we can’t even open anymore. I fact they’ve been covered in plastic for years now. So they had to be reordered. Then they forgot the kitchen window up in Indy (about an hour and change from here.) With that said, they did an outstanding job. Of all the windows our biggest worry was the bay window. The original was built in the early seventies, like 1971. It’s frame was made of aluminum and was a single pane. The flanking lights were single hung (which were broken when we bought the house.) It had those ugly cross bars on the windows. How were these ever popular? But it had a huge projection. Its a 25-50-25 style making it really roomy and large. After years of trying to get a replacement one we finally arrived at the idea of just rebuilding this one. Why you ask? Well lets just say every window shop and lumber yard we went to told us that the measurements we had (which by the way they took) created a mathematically impossible window. Not a single maker could reproduce what was obviously hanging in my wall. I guess sometime computers shouldn’t be used. Anyways, long story short a contractor gave us the idea of just rebuilding it. He told us a lot of people do this to keep the look and feel of older windows when restoring an old house. Cool, it can be done. But who??

Well the Unique Window guy tells us “yeah, no problem that can be rebuilt.” They replaced the original parts with three picture windows. Lost some glass but its not even noticeable, especially since we ditched the crossbars. As for the workmanship of the windows themselves they’re like the Macs of the window word. Expensive but worth it. Triple paned, vinyl with welded corners, foam packed everywhere, and UV coated. Basically heat reflects off them. In the summer it stays out and in the winter it stays in. I already can feel the difference in our bedroom, which is the only room to get both windows. The kitchen is still waiting and the two double hungs in the front of the house are on order. Our little bedroom has just one window which wasn’t replaced yet and there is a definite difference in temperatures from our bedroom and that room.

If this sounds like a ringing endorsement of these windows its because it is. I pretty sure we have increased the value of the house big time. Which is always good. Especially in this housing market.

Here is some shots of the work.

Need An App For This

This is a post for iPhone App and Mac application developers.
Recently I was looking at the Epson’s P-6000 photo viewer. Nice device but it’s more than I want to spend. Then it occured to me, hey my iPhone has a great screen. Why hasn’t any one made an app that will do what the Epson (and other brands too) do. All I really need to do is view my images on something better than the screen on the back of my Nikon. It would also have the added bonus of being able to wirelessly upload images to wherever I need. Even my Mac at home. Obviously the storage on the iPhone (or even the iPod Touch for that matter) doesn’t compare to the Epson products. But I always have my phone with me.
So what I’d Iike to see:
1. The ability to upload images off the camera and store them in the camera roll already on the iPhone. This should be done through wifi, if the camera is equiped, or tethering. In fact the wifi should just be an option, it should be a tethered process first.
2. The ability to pick and choose images and upload them to where ever I need. (Like the Eye-Fi App but now I can upload images from another camera.) Also I still want to have the option of syncing the images when I sync the phone with my Mac, like normal. At that time is when I’d decide to erase the disk or not.
3. Obviously this is going to need a piece of hardware to make it work. So what I see is a device that had a SD card reader on one end and the male end of the flat USB port (sorry if I don’t know the right term for that.) Basically it’ll look like a regular SD reader but with a different USB plug. Presently I’m using SD cards but it doesn’t have to limited to just these cards.
4. Would like to also have a cable with the mini USB plug on one end for the camera and the iPhone Jack on the other. An adapter to go from a regular USB plug to the iPhone port would just as good. In fact that might just be the easiest way as we all have USB cables lying around anyway.
Lastly it would be cool if the iPhone can Geo tag the images as I unpload in the field. This option should able to be turned off if I’m uploading somewhere else.
Oh yeah, I’m real generous so I’m not looking for any patents, copyrights or the residuals. Just build it and I’ll buy it.

About that AT&T Service

While visiting my kid brother and my Dad here in Newnan, Georgia I’ve noticed that my AT&T service is spotty at it’s best. My iPhone has essentially become an iPod Touch as the only service I get is wi-fi. This is the first time since I’ve gotten my iPhone that I’m experiencing this kind shitty service. I’ve been with AT&T since they took over Cingular (or was it the other way around?) Before I had an iPhone I never noticed how bad it was. Now that I have a device that I essentially use as a laptop AT&T’s spotty service is a glaring problem for an iPhone user. In fact it sucks. My dad just moved here a few weeks ago and switched from AT&T to Verizon because of this. (Basically in the subdivision my dad and brother live in there is NO Service. Ouside and around Newnan it’s spotty and in some areas it’s non existant. The menu actually reads no service.) it occurred to me that if I lived here I probably would have never bought my iPhone, let alone use AT&T. My brother uses a Blackberry Storm but he really wanted an iPhone.
Now I can’t speak for AT&T on why this area is off the grid but hey it’s a large area with a lot of money (my brother is an airline pilot, a captain.) but it seems to me they need to get thier shit together. Someone told me that sometimes Verizon (or what ever carrier for that matter) puts up it’s towers on areas first and by the time AT&T gets around they can’t because the residents don’t want another tower in the area. There’s also a version of this that says Verizon has “paid” to be the only carrier in certian areas but I don’t believe this. Too risky for a company to do something stupid like that. They be burned in minute if anyone found that out.
So why am I writing about this? I mean this nothing new, just someone else bitching about AT&T. Well I personally have had real good luck with AT&T since I bought my iPhone. My bad luck had been with the phones. My first one was a motorola that had the worse software ever. Hated using it. The next one was a Nokia flip phone that the LCD eventually broke and became useless even though it still worked. When Apple came out with the iPhone I was real excited. Finally a phone that was intuitive and “just works.” As a long time Mac user I knew I wanted one and didn’t care about the carrier. I never had problems with AT&T. Maybe where I live the town is so small that AT&T’s network doesn’t get overloaded. Who knows. Now that I’ve experienced bad service I really understand the gripes everyone has had. But personally I don’t know of a solution for this. I don’t see Apple offering a Verizon version of the phone. T-Mobile is the only other network the iPhone would work on. But that would be worse than this situation. They could never handle that amount of traffic. The only real solution would be for Apple to actually invest in AT&T by upgrade the network themselves. But that might cause legal issues. It just sounds too fishy and the FCC and the DOJ might have problems with it.
Can’t wait to get home where this isn’t an issue.

Those Are People That Died

Jim Carroll, Poet and Punk Rocker Who Wrote ‘The Basketball Diaries’, Dies at 60

I remember seeing him in New York when I was a kid. Wasn’t a big fan of punk then but really appreciated his work, especially his music. (And yes I did read his book, “Basket ball Diaries.”) Catholic Boy [iTunes Link] was one of the first albums I bought on the iTunes Store. His song “People Who Died” was my first real introduction to the New York punk scene. Like I said I wasn’t actually into that scene (I was a metalhead but we didn’t call it metal in those days, it was just rock) but because of him and catching his live performance I learned to appreciate other genres of Rock (including New Wave at the time.) He was probably one the all time great punk rockers from New York.

We’ll miss you, Jim.

I’m Mad As Hell

“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be!

We all know things are bad — worse than bad – they’re crazy.

It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, “Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.”

Well, I’m not going to leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!

I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot. I don’t want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad.

You’ve gotta say, “I’m a human being, goddammit! My life has value!”

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

“I’m as mad as hell,
and I’m not going to take this anymore!!”
– Howard Beale as played by Peter Finch in Network (1976, Sidney Lumet)

Just thought this needed to be said. I’m mad as hell because I can no longer stand all this bullshit rhetoric about how Obama is a socialist, a Nazi, a Muslim (like thats bad) et al.

I guess both sides of the current political issues can take on this speech as their own, but I’ve realized that the whole issue about Obama and the Right boils down to one thing: he’s black and they can’t handle it. Maureen Dowd at the Times nails it here. Come folks just say it, “But hey, he’s black (or insert racially derogatory term.)” There now do you feel better?

UPDATE:

I just read on line that Glen Beck has compared himself to Howard Beale. Here’s an article disposing Beck’s assertion.
Yeah, right. The guy works for the very organizations Beale was ranting against.

Stupid Fuck.

Best Use Of Twitter. Ever.

Shit My Dad Says

My brother linked this to me the other day. I almost pissed my pants. Its got to be the funniest Twitter site I’ve come across. Basically this guy Justin lives with his 73 year old dad and he posts things his dad says. Too funny.

Goodbye , Teddy Kennedy

Last night I sat and watched the news with all the tributes to Senator Edward Kennedy and I realized that he was the last of his kind. The Liberal Lion of Senate is gone and there is no one left to fight for people like me anymore. I’ve come to the conclusion that people like me, the liberal left wing of the Democrat Party, are either dying off or no longer being listened to. This summer I got to spend an evening with friends in Eugene, Oregon (which like Bloomington, Indiana has become a place of exile for liberal minded people) and had that odd feeling. What we stand for, and what we feel America needs to do as a nation is not only longer relevant but reviled. Sad but true. I’ve kind of lost hope in the system and unfortunately no longer have the will to soldier on. Senator Kennedy will be sadly missed.

I feel so alone now.

So much for buying that new Fiesta I was hoping for…

I’ve been getting e mail and snail mail lately from Ford on their new Fiesta. Awhile back I wrote that I was very interested in this car. Well turns out we’re not getting the 3 door hatch here in America, just the four door hatch and a four door sedan (thats dog ugly if you ask me.) What the fuck?! So I googled Ford Fiesta Two door Hatch and came across this article from Motor Trend from June ‘08. Here its not even certain if any of the hatchbacks are coming here, although Ford’s website pretty much confirms a four door hatch. But what I noticed was in the comments. A lot of people want the 3 door hatch. I noticed in the Autoblog Green review, too. A lot of people want the three door hatch. As of right now the only companies making a three door hatch is VW with the Rabbit (and the Golf GTI) and Toyota with the Yaris.
With that all said it has been getting good reviews. Over here they have spy photos of the sedan version. Judging from the reactions in comments its not a hit, but the hatch seems to be liked.

So Please Ford, bring the three door here!

Now Its Time To Say Goodbye…

Well another vacation is over for us. Kind of cliched to say so but time does fly. We didn’t get out to the clubs as much as we wanted to (I got sick Thursday night, not to mention I fucked my back up hiking Mt. Hood.) We did do a lot of walking, though with my mom. She came out to spend one week with Jen and I. This was her first real vacation in over thirty years. She had a real good time. Last night we went for a walk and wouldn’t you know it we came across a really cool neighborhood on SE Belmont. Really nice home and a shit load of coffee shops and bars. We had coffee, Illy at that, at a place called the Pied Cow. Kind of reminded me of The Spoon in Bloomington, only this place was opened real late and served booze (seems to be normal in Portland) and dessert. We could use a late night dessert place in Bloomington. I took more pictures than I want to think about. Must say I didn’t use the wide angle lens as much as I thought I would. A few times at Crater Lake and Mt. Hood it came in handy but otherwise I think I wasted my money. In fact there were a few times I wish I had a long lens, but packing that would have been a nightmare (my carry on is way too heavy now.) However the normal lens, a Nikon 24- 70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S I rented was sweet. Love to get one but its a two grand lens. Thats what rental sites are for. Well stay tuned for my post when I get through sorting and editing through all my images. Looks like its getting near boarding time.

Faeries Wear Boots and You Got To Believe Me

Jen and I went to The Faery World Festival in Eugene today. This was the event we planned our vacation around. The last two times we came out here we missed it (last year one of our favorite authors, Holly Black, attended.) It was originally scheduled at a winery but it was sold and the festival moved to a different location. Unfortunately, it was still blazing hot out. But nonetheless we still had a good time. We also spent a shit load of money. I’m such a sucker for alternative clothes its sickening. In fact whenever I come out here, especially in Portland, I drop a lot of cash on clothes for Jenni. I’m one of those boyfriends/husbands that likes to buy his girlfriend/wife clothes. Cool clothes. And she always looks awesome in them. Its a good thing we didn’t bring a lot cash to the festival because we would have spent it all (there was this top hat I wanted but she wouldn’t take a credit card.) Jenni did treat me, actually she said it was an early birthday present, to a kilt. I’ve been wanting a black one, for awhile now and I finally found it. Jenni wanted me to have one longer than I wanted one, by the way. Its cool as shit.

One of my favorite photographers, J. Corsentino , was there showing off his Time Of The Faeries collection. I love the imagination of his work, not mention his creative use of the models. This along the lines of something I’d like to do. It was great to meet him, too. If I had the money (and thank the gods I didn’t) I probably would have bought a lot more of his prints. Awesome work, really. There were bands playing all day and through the evening. Today was good faery day, tomorrow is bad faery day. We haven’t decided whether we’re going tomorrow. We could go back tonight (we had our hands stamped) but we’d have to pay an entrance fee again for tomorrow. But its going to hot again so I’d rather go in the evening but we already have plans. Oh well.

Anyways, yesterday we went out to to Crater Lake. Its a giant lake that’s a volcano that collapsed about 7700 years ago. Its one of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen. Really. It took us about two maybe three hours to get out there. Incredible. I’ve never seen water so blue in my life. We did a lot of walking. And I took a lot of pictures, close to 500. I haven’t even begun to sort through them and tag them so it’ll be a while before I post them, probably when I get home. I really don’t feel like doing that on the road, after all I am on vacation.